1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for orienting and placing a button for attachment to a garment.
2. Prior Art
Machines for attaching buttons to a garment are known in which one button and its mating fastener part at a time are delivered from their respective chutes to a coacting punch and die and are then clinched or coupled together by the punch and die with a garment placed therebetween. If the button bears on its obverse side a design, mark or symbol requiring a specified angular position in which the button is to be mounted on a garment, the button must be oriented in such a direction.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,019,666, issued Apr. 26, 1977, discloses a button orienting apparatus which includes a push mechanism for pushing a button to turn or roll the same by a pushing slide in a guide channel until a tab on the reverse side of the button is caught by a pair of claws on a locking lever mounted on the pushing slide. The push mechanism further pushes the button until the latter is placed in a cylindrical gripping head. Then the gripping head with the button therein is turned through a predetermined angle. Such an angular movement of the gripping head is caused by the use of a coacting rack and pinion. The pinion is connected to the gripping head by a coupling such as universal joint, and the rack is reciprocatingly driven by an air-pressurized cylinder.
However, since the gripping head serves as a die when the button and its mating fastener part are clinched to be coupled together, the gripping head would be inadvertently displaced axially and/or circumferentially due to impact by the punch. Although the coupling absorbs such displacement of the gripping head, it is difficult to achieve accurate angular movement of the gripping head because the coupling is subjected to backlash, which increases due to the torque and impact frequently exerted on the coupling. Further, this frequent impact causes the coupling to be distorted at its bearings so that the gripping head cannot be turned for proper orientation. Moreover, the stroke of the rack is relatively large to turn the pinion through a predetermined angle, thus requiring that the stroke of the air-pressurized cylinder be as large as the rack's stroke. Given the relatively large stroke of the rack and thus of the cylinder, it necessarily takes a long time for the orientation of the button, depending on the amount of the stroke.